Sympathy In Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, both main characters, Victor and the creature, exhibit major moral flaws, specifically, their interferences with life and death. The creature in particular, despite performing various unforgiveable acts, incites the reader’s pity and compassion as they witness his poignant struggle from beginning to end. Throughout the course of the novel, the creature murders, threatens, stalks, and seeks revenge on others, but his character extends much deeper than these atrocities, leading one to feel remorse for his hapless, ill-fated life. Shelly allows readers to better understand the creature by establishing the complexity of his character, and in doing so, she allows the reader to relate and sympathize with a creature …show more content…
His longing for human interaction is coupled with loneliness, causing the reader to sympathize with the monster’s hopeless and undesirable predicament. By characterizing the monster in a way that portrays him as more human than beast, Shelley is allows readers to see him as an equal, complex being that is deserving of their …show more content…
Although the creature eventually became consumed with revenge and a thirst for blood, he cannot be held fully responsible for his actions since he was brought into the world without a choice and was completely neglected by Victor as well as abhorred by others. Shelley reveals to readers the confused, naïve, and innocent nature of the creature following his reanimation, and uses these qualities to depict the creature as a childlike being inside of a body of a monster. The creature describes himself as “confused” and unable “to distinguish between the operations of my various senses” upon awakening in the world (Shelley 70, 71). Victor Frankenstein, instead of caring for and teaching the creature in the ways of man, as a creator should feel obligated to do for their experimental being, chooses to hide, leaving the monster to fend for himself in a world that despises his appearance and of which the creature knows nothing about. Not only is the creature abandoned without any guidance, Frankenstein built him a body which will always result in his treatment as a pariah in the world of man. Even Victor reflects on the creature’s body with disgust saying, “Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endured with animations could not be so hideous as that wretch” (Shelley 36). The creature’s lack of knowledge or life